The Hawk Is Howling

In 2003, Mogwai released their fourth full length, Happy Songs for Happy People, and its reception ranged from middling to favorable. Some praised the band's scope, grandeur, and willingness to explore beyond the bounds of the quiet-loud-louder dynamic it had mastered; others lamented a lack of the same, alternately calling Happy Songs too soft, too small, or too stiff. Happy Songs now feels like a summation of Mogwai's past, graced with goo d ideas for its future. Unfortunately, the music that led to that nexus has been much more compelling than what has emerged from it.

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